The Los Angeles Lakers needed every win possible on their recent six-game road trip, as they are still in a chase to get out of the No. 9 seed and make life easier during the Play-In Tournament. And while they had some easier games, head coach Darvin Ham and company had games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers as well.
The Lakers took care of business as well as they reasonably could have been expected to, defeating the Bucks to go 5-1 on the road trip. It left them still in the No. 9 spot, but only 0.5 games behind the Sacramento Kings for No. 8 and 1.5 games behind the Phoenix Suns for No. 6. It was a big trip for the Lakers, who closed the gap with some of the teams above them heading into a crucial final stretch.
Upon the closing of the six-game road trip, Ham spoke about what the success could mean for the Lakers moving forward and how they can use that to fuel their final five regular season games and beyond, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“It can further educate us on how we need to play, how we need to play consistently on both sides of the ball. No more or no less. Every day is an education. We’ll look at it as we break down some different areas when we watch film on Friday in the process of preparing for Cleveland on Saturday, but we’ll watch a lot of us and the way we looked and the way we are when we do it right and the way we are when we don’t do it right. We’ll have a plethora of areas on both sides of the ball that we can illustrate, things we need try clean up and things we need to sustain. Just a lot of material that we can use to put the mirror in front of ourselves so to speak and reveal to us how we need to play when we step out on the floor.”
Ham wants the Lakers to approach the final five games of the regular season with the same mentality as they have been for a long while now, focusing less on what’s ahead and more on each individual day:
“Continue to do things like we’ve been doing them, one day, one game at a time. Don’t look too far ahead like ‘if we go this certain number in the last five games, or if we go this certain number.’ Just attack each day and each game with as much juice as you possibly can to try to get the most positive results possible.”
The Lakers may very well end up finishing at the No. 9 spot, or they could climb. But either way, they appear more than prepared to face those challenges given the way they have been playing the last several weeks.
LeBron James pleased with Lakers; 5-1 road trip
Things weren’t always great for the Lakers in their final game in Washington, especially with LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the rest of the starters having to come back in late after the reserves allowed the Wizards back in the game. But on the last night, James was happy getting the win on what was a very successful trip.
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